Fact-checking the 2nd day of the Republican National Convention
Hillary Clinton was often attacked, sometimes unfairly or out of context, on the second night of the Republican National Convention. Here's a roundup of some of the most noteworthy claims that were made.
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"You viciously attacked the character of the women who were abused at the hands of your husband."
This line echoes an attack already used by Donald Trump - that Clinton is an "unbelievably nasty, mean enabler" of her husband's affairs. "She would go after these women and destroy their lives."
Carl Bernstein's 2008 book "A Woman in Charge" reveals that Hillary Clinton was involved in a pre-1992 effort to obtain signed statements from women denying they had affairs with Clinton, including Gennifer Flowers, who said she had had a 12-year affair with the then governor of Arkansas. "There can be no question that Hillary was Bill's fiercest defender in preventing his other women from causing trouble," Bernstein wrote.
But evidence is lacking that Clinton attacked the character of women who were "abused" by Clinton.
A central element of this claim is an interview with Hillary Clinton on The Today Show on Jan. 27, 1998, a week after the president was accused of having an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. That accusation emerged during discovery for a sexual harassment lawsuit by Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state employee who alleged that in 1991 Clinton, while governor, propositioned her and exposed himself.
"I mean, look at the very people who are involved in this, they have popped up in other settings," Clinton told Matt Lauer. "This is the great story here, for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it, is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president."
This is a famous statement by Hillary Clinton, which came after she referenced what she believed were false attacks by Republican foes: "Having seen so many of these accusations come and go, having seen people profit, you know, like Jerry Falwell, with videos, accusing my husband of committing murder, of drug running, seeing some of the things that are written and said about him, my attitude is, you know, we've been there before, we have seen this before, and I am just going to wait patiently until the truth comes out."
This interview, by many accounts, was certainly pivotal to saving Bill Clinton's presidency, as his wife forcefully backed him. But while Clinton's foes describe this as a political attack on Lewinsky and Jones, by Hillary Clinton's account at the time her husband had not yet admitted the Lewinsky affair to her. That did not happen until Aug. 15, 1998, according to her memoir:
"He told me for the first time that the situation was much more serious than he had previously acknowledged. He now realized he would have to testify that there had been an inappropriate intimacy. . . . I could hardly breathe. Gulping for air, I started crying and yelling at him. . . . I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Up until now I only thought that he'd been foolish for paying attention to the young woman and was convinced that he was being railroaded. I couldn't believe he would do anything to endanger our marriage and our family. I was dumbfounded, heartbroken and outraged that I'd believed him at all."
Moreover, at the time of the interview, Lewinsky also denied there had been a relationship. Her lawyer had submitted an affidavit on Jan. 12 from her saying she "never had a sexual relationship with the president." Lewinsky did not begin to testify before the independent prosecutor about the full extent of the relationship until July 27, six months after the Today Show interview. Lewinsky testified for 15 days, after which the president finally confessed to his wife.
When Clinton ran for the Senate, she was asked during a debate whether she misled Americans during the Lauer interview two years earlier. "Obviously I didn't mislead anyone," Clinton replied. "I didn't know the truth. And there's a great deal of pain associated with that and my husband has certainly acknowledged that and made it clear that he did mislead the country as well as his family."
Some might argue that because Lewinsky had relations when Bill Clinton was in a position of executive authority, he engaged in sexual harassment. Certainly an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claim could have been filed, though Lewinsky did not do so.
Bill Clinton in 1998 settled the Paula Jones suit for $850,000, with no apology or admission of guilt. There is no indication he ever admitted to his wife that Jones's allegations were true. The case had been dismissed by a federal judge, who ruled that even if Jones's allegations were true, such "boorish and offensive" behavior would not be severe enough to constitute sexual harassment under the law. That ruling was under appeal when the case was settled.
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